December books
Jan. 5th, 2013 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slemslempikeThe Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs
Firebrand - Ankaret Wells
Hark! A Vagrant - Kate Beaton
My Friends from Cairnton - Jane Duncan
My Friend my Father - Jane Duncan
Lace - Shirley Conran
Betsy-Tacy - Maud Hart Lovelace
Betsy-Tacy and Tib - Maud Hart Lovelace
Betsy and Tacy go Over the Big Hill - Maud Hart Lovelace
The Year of Living Biblically was interesting, but also frustrating. I found that I wanted to hear Julie's (his wife) point of view much more than his. It touched on how difficult it was sometimes for her to have to accommodate it, but it seemed to gloss over how much he was able to do things because other people would take up the slack. I did really like the look at the people who were on the fringes because of their beliefs, and that he wrote about them, for the vast majority of the time, with humour but without making fun of them. I especially liked the man who was very pleased every time he managed to save someone from accidentally mixing the wrong fibres in their clothes.
Firebrand is the new novel from Ankaret Wells - there's an extract available here. I loved her previous Requite books, which are sci-fi, so I was really excited to have this to read at the end of the year. This is steampunk romance, with airships and dead bishops. This was a great romp, and I loved the dreadful stepdaughters especially.
Hark! A Vagrant was one of my Christmas presents, and a lovely one too. I think I'd seen most of them on her site already, but it was great to see them again. If I had a coffee table I could put it on it. Well, I'd probably have laptops and pens and stuff actually on it, but it's the sort of book that I could have on a coffee table if that were the sort of thing I put on tables that I had.
More Jane Duncan books as well, and I am looking forward to seeing my colleague and getting the next ones. I thought seeing how Twice recuperated and what the illness did to Janet was really interesting. And although I knew that her father died (and would obviously be dead now anyway) it was still dreadfully sad when he died in the book.
I found Lace in a charity shop over Christmas, and since I had heard lots of people talking about it online earlier in the year I decided I should get it and read it. I was expecting it to be pure bonkbuster, but it was much more involved, sometimes sad, and downright disturbing than I was expecting. There was an afterword where Shirley Conran talked about what inspired her while she was writing, and said that she thought it was more about friendship than anything else - and while there was a lot of else going on, it's true that there was always that core.
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anglaisepaon gave me the complete collection of Betsy-Tacy books, and I was delighted. I was delighted and relieved to find that I did in fact properly enjoy them as well. I am not a huge fan of precocious children, but luckily these are not precocious or cute at all, and are in fact ordinarily delightful. Is there a timeline anywhere of the various North American children's books and what period of time they happen in? I would like to work out what was happening to Laura, or Rose, and Anne of Green Gables, and the others. It's so very, very different to the world of early 20th century children's books in the UK.
Firebrand - Ankaret Wells
Hark! A Vagrant - Kate Beaton
My Friends from Cairnton - Jane Duncan
My Friend my Father - Jane Duncan
Lace - Shirley Conran
Betsy-Tacy - Maud Hart Lovelace
Betsy-Tacy and Tib - Maud Hart Lovelace
Betsy and Tacy go Over the Big Hill - Maud Hart Lovelace
The Year of Living Biblically was interesting, but also frustrating. I found that I wanted to hear Julie's (his wife) point of view much more than his. It touched on how difficult it was sometimes for her to have to accommodate it, but it seemed to gloss over how much he was able to do things because other people would take up the slack. I did really like the look at the people who were on the fringes because of their beliefs, and that he wrote about them, for the vast majority of the time, with humour but without making fun of them. I especially liked the man who was very pleased every time he managed to save someone from accidentally mixing the wrong fibres in their clothes.
Firebrand is the new novel from Ankaret Wells - there's an extract available here. I loved her previous Requite books, which are sci-fi, so I was really excited to have this to read at the end of the year. This is steampunk romance, with airships and dead bishops. This was a great romp, and I loved the dreadful stepdaughters especially.
Hark! A Vagrant was one of my Christmas presents, and a lovely one too. I think I'd seen most of them on her site already, but it was great to see them again. If I had a coffee table I could put it on it. Well, I'd probably have laptops and pens and stuff actually on it, but it's the sort of book that I could have on a coffee table if that were the sort of thing I put on tables that I had.
More Jane Duncan books as well, and I am looking forward to seeing my colleague and getting the next ones. I thought seeing how Twice recuperated and what the illness did to Janet was really interesting. And although I knew that her father died (and would obviously be dead now anyway) it was still dreadfully sad when he died in the book.
I found Lace in a charity shop over Christmas, and since I had heard lots of people talking about it online earlier in the year I decided I should get it and read it. I was expecting it to be pure bonkbuster, but it was much more involved, sometimes sad, and downright disturbing than I was expecting. There was an afterword where Shirley Conran talked about what inspired her while she was writing, and said that she thought it was more about friendship than anything else - and while there was a lot of else going on, it's true that there was always that core.
anglaisepaon gave me the complete collection of Betsy-Tacy books, and I was delighted. I was delighted and relieved to find that I did in fact properly enjoy them as well. I am not a huge fan of precocious children, but luckily these are not precocious or cute at all, and are in fact ordinarily delightful. Is there a timeline anywhere of the various North American children's books and what period of time they happen in? I would like to work out what was happening to Laura, or Rose, and Anne of Green Gables, and the others. It's so very, very different to the world of early 20th century children's books in the UK. 
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-06 05:54 pm (UTC)And contains far more home-made fudge than I have ever encountered in fiction. It was all the teenage boyfriends being invited round to eat onion sandwiches that I found rather surprising compared with early 20th century UK children's literature.
ETA oops, if you have only read the first three, you have not got as far as the onion sandwiches or fudge, in which case, I apologise for spoilers.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-06 06:39 pm (UTC)